Manila part 4: the streets of Manila

As I wrote in one of my previous posts about Manila, they seem to use whatever comes to hand as a platform for advertising. Be it the inside or outside of a taxi, jeepney or whatever, just paint what you want to bring across directly on the surface. No need for fancy and expensive stickers or techniques, just use some paint.

Like so:

I already wrote about the Philippines famous Jeepney's. Another common sight are bike-taxis and motorbike-taxis.
I took a bike-taxi yesterday. Very uncomfortable, I may say. Not to mention the part where they tried to rip me of, as does every other taxidriver. So far not any of them succeeded;-). Tiring though....

I have been driving around town in taxis now for quite some hours and this is what many streets and neighbourhoods look like. It all looks so poor to me! A concrete jungle in which everything seems broken, dirty, smelly, noisy, ugly, busy....
Nevertheless people smile and laugh a lot. Ofcourse people try to rip me of and harass me by begging, but many people are very friendly to me. 
Often they are not only willing to have their picture taken, but even ask me to take their picture. Just for the fun of it, I guess.

'Urban decay' -and the exploration and photography of it- has a big number of fans all over the world. I am one of them. Seeing the charm of deserted and partly decayed buildings and factory's. 
Walking through this city there seems to be urban decay everywhere, but without much charm though. If you look at a building like the one below and imagine the trafficnoise, the smells and the dirt with it, it mainly fills you with sadness about so much uglyness. Not so much for myself, since I can leave. More for the people who live here.

This neighbourhood seemed to have done their best to pimp their barrio with bright paints and deco.

Manila's children: 

School uniforms

Sunday dresses

The world is your wash line:

 The canals smelled so bad that I almost threw up. And the river was full with branches of trees, probably broken of during the latest typhoons?

So far my tour through the streets and neighbourhoods of Manila. What do you think of it? Have you been to Manila yourself? Was your impression a different one?


My next blogpost about Manila (part 5) will be about small entreprises along the roads.